Every year Latvia has taken care of its national stand at the Fair and made it recognizable, noticeable, as well as representative for every visitor to find their favourite products and discover something new and astonishing.

Each year one international partner is invited to ensure partnership and to assist Germany in organizing the event. In 2015 this honour and challenge lies on Latvia’s shoulders.

To be invited as a partner country, however, is not an easy business to accomplish and several steps have to be covered before a country can acquire this respectable status. Also Latvia covered a long but worthy path before being invited to share the organizational duties of the Fair.

As many other processes in the sphere of international relations, it starts with a word of mouth and a huge will of a particular delegation to achieve particular goals. Already in 2005, then Minister of Agriculture of the Republic of Latvia Mārtiņš Roze initiated the negotiation process on Latvia becoming the partner country of the Fair with the Minister of Agriculture and Consumer Protection of Germany Mrs. Renate Künast and the burgomaster of Berlin Mr. Klaus Wowereit. Besides that, Mr. Mārtiņš Roze was the author of the idea for Latvia to participate as the partner country. On the picture below, Mr. Roze (in the middle of the picture) is offering some green tea to the guests in the Latvian stand – a good way to start a dialogue.

After the process of negotiation, it is necessary to agree conceptually that the both parties are mutually interested in cooperation and therefore, are going to proceed with the formal process of further cooperation. In this regard, the Minister of Agriculture of Latvia Mr. Jānis Dūklavs and the Minister of Agriculture and Consumer Protection of Germany Mrs. Ilse Aigner reached a conceptual agreement with the Secretary of State of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Mr. Andris Teikmanis in 2010 that Latvia will become a partner country of the Fair.

Finally, the process that was initiated in 2005 found its official place in the history of relations between Latvia and Germany on January 17, 2014. That time Minister of Agriculture of Latvia Mrs. Laimdota Straujuma and the chairman of the board of general directors of “Messe Berlin” Christian Göke signed the official agreement on Latvia’s participation in the Green Week 2015 organization process as the Fair’s partner country. Signing of the agreement, however, initiated further and more complicated process of actual preparation for the Fair, because each year a particular attention of the visitors and participants is devoted to the Fair’s partner country.

International Fair for Food, Agriculture and Horticulture, Green Week, in Berlin is a great chance to be truly proud of Latvia’s people and homemade products. Furthermore, this is a chance to promote Latvia among the international audience as hospitable and open country.

Latvia’s as the Fair partner country’s leitmotif is ‘Enjoy Latvia Slowly’ (In German: Lettland – nimm dir die zeit), which characterizes Latvia as one of the greenest countries in the world, inviting each and anyone to slow down, to stop for a while and to enjoy the unhurried rest. We want to spread the word about Latvia as a country with lifelong traditions in the export of food and agricultural products, as well as long-term and future-oriented production with healthy tourism prospective (more information for travellers about Latvia).

The Ministry of Agriculture in cooperation with the “Foundation for the Development of Latvia’s Agriculture”, the Latvian Rural Advisory and Training Centre as well as the Latvian Agrarian Economy Institute will organize the events of Latvia as a partner country of the Fair “Green Week” 2015 in Berlin.

In the most times, the partner country represents itself in the national stand demonstrating its home products. This year, the overall space of Latvia’s stand will be divided into the five main blocks:

- Catering and tourism block will provide food for the visitors as well as host representatives from such institutions as Latvian Tourism Development Agency, the Bank of Latvia, Latvian Post and Latvian

Rural Tourism Association Rural Traveller in order to inform visitors about the tourism options in Latvia;

- “Reception House”, “Garden and Apiary” and the “Fish farm” block;

- Forest block will present the products of Latvia’s lumberjacks and foresters.

In 2015, the Fair will take place from January 16 to January 25. During this time, we will be able to use the chance and present our marvellous land to the numerous visitors from all over the world. Latvian land is characterized by the deep-rooted agricultural traditions that are continuously used today in their modern interpretation and pattern, which intertwines nature’s invincible diversity together with the strong, bright and hard-working people.

As you can see, we are proud of our land and of the partner land status that Latvia honourably holds. We do not want to hide our pride, however, and are warmly welcoming you to Latvian stand in Berlin from January 16 to January 25, 2015, and do not forget to enjoy Latvia slowly during and after the Green Week!